JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jacksonville City Council’s Special Committee on Duval DOGE held a meeting on Tuesday to address the $23 million deficit in the city’s Health Insurance Fund.
The city hired The Bailey Group, a Florida-based insurance brokerage and consulting firm that is being paid roughly $90,000 to help reduce the deficit.
“I view this as a three-year plan, this is not something we are going to solve within a year,” Councilman Ron Salem said.
He said the city’s Health Insurance Fund has accumulated a deficit of more than $20 million over more than five years.
“We wanted to talk today about what we plan to do and get feedback from you guys and give you similar examples of projects we’ve done with other clients,” Sabrina Abare of the Bailey Group said.
Abare told members of Duval DOGE that while they are still in the data collection stage of the process, their analysis will include the following benchmarks.
- Analyze medical contribution levels
- Review salary tier contributions
- Identify disparities and opportunities for adjustments
- While enduring a competitive and equitable strategy
Salem said there’s a potential to save as much as $15 million over a multi-year period. He also thinks the city can save millions in the city’s prescription plan.
He talked about how the potential plans to save could impact the healthcare of more than 7,000 government employees.
“Keep in mind we are going to look at all this, and present recommendations to the mayor’s office,” Salem said.
A spokesperson for Mayor Donna Deegan’s office was also at the meeting and talked about the efforts already in place to reduce costs, specifically in pharmacy spending.
Duval DOGE members will send the recommendation from the Bailey Group to the Mayor’s Office. The recommendations will likely be a part of the budget next year.
Mayor Deegan’s Office released this statement “As the Duval DOGE Chair noted, this is an ongoing problem that the current administration did not create. However, under Mayor Deegan’s leadership, her team is working diligently to solve it. These efforts will reduce employee healthcare costs by more than $13 million from 2023 to 2027, and we will continue to focus on delivering more savings. Should the duplicative efforts being undertaken by the Duval DOGE Committee produce new ideas, we look forward to reviewing them.”